The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-09-14
A PosTHUMoUs BEARD,


Han Does Not Die at Once. =
San Francisco Examiner,
~ read In Sundays Examiner an article
headed Shaving Dead Men, copied from
the CHI cago Inter-Ocean," said an Oakland
undertaken, said to have dug deeper
into the mysteries of his profession than
most of his melancholy brotherhood. ut
describes a barber, who had shaved many
corpses, speaking in jeering words of an
English dude who cautioned him against
taking the stubble of the neck of his de-
funct relative upward, instead OF down.
ward, because the hair would afterward gro "
improper. The barber evidently supposed
that the beard ceased to grow after a
case at all. IL the body is preserved from
decay by being buried in an iron, air tight
cssket, the beard will not die, but will go
on growing Just so long as corruption is
averted. do not think that the hair of
the head ever increases in length, but you
know, even in life a mans locks become
scanty, and finally disappear altogether,
as he grows old, while mis- sge usually only
serves to make his beard thicker and
longer. / can vouch for the vitality of the
hair that sprouts from the chin.
"When the war closed was an under
taker in Richmond, Va, and l was en-
ployed to direct the funeral of a we'll
known Southern merchant who had freely
lavished his large fortune in aiding the
Confederates in their hopeless struggle.
He died of something to which the doctors
could give no name, but which the family,
who were obliged to go to the North to en-
able the sons to earn a livelihood,
had no hesitation in calling broken heart,
Loyalty sacrificed to the lost cause. He
was an elderly man who had always kept
his face clean shaved, and after his death
his widow, who was many years younger
than her husband, desired that barber
should remove the bristles that had grown
upon his skin while he was in the state of
mental indifference to outward things
that is the forerunner of such death as
his.
"Ris face, if may use the expression,
was as smooth as a new-laid egg when he
was stretched in a cast-iron coffin, which
was then Theoretically sealed and placed
in the family vault, which, after the Gus
tom of Southern people at that time, was
on the plantation owned by the family.
The remains were the last deposited there,
fol the estate passed into the hands of
strangers, who, as was usual on sunni occa-
sions, pledged themselves to leave the
burial grounds undisturbed and to allow
It's former owners access to it at all times.
Fifteen years passed away, and the re.
latives of the dead man, grown rich in the
East, determined to disinter the body, re-
move it to Long Island and bury it in
| Greenwood Cemetery. They came to
| Richmond, where was still doing business
In q wretchedly reduced way, and COM
missioned me to take the remains from the
vault. 1 did so, and before they were
shipped for the East the widow expressed
desire to look upon the face once more.
i was satisfied that the body was in good
condition, so l removed the lid of the
coffin IS it lay in my shop. The lady
glanced at the contents, and then in a par
oxism of grief and anger, she declared
that had made a blunder and that the
BODY was not that of her late husband.
"0f course knew had not committed
any error, but confess that at first l was
considerably staggered myself. On the
opce-smooth chin was growing a snow
white beard that reached almost to the
feet, and flowed over the sides of the
corpse filling nearly all the space lefs in
the coffin. The clothes and score of 9th.
er evidences convinced the children that
they were looking at the remains of their
father, but the widow refused to be COM
forted until the posthumous beard was
shaved of, when she at once recogniz sd
the face.
"The body is now in vault at Green
wood, and have no doubt that a luxur-
liant hair sgain adorns the face. have
seen many cases OF a similar kind, but
none in which the growth of the beard was
so great as in this one.